By Sophomore Oliver Martinez

Recently, the NBA hosted the All-Star game. Although this is supposed to be one of the most hyped events in the NBA, as it unites the best from each division, it really doesn’t live up to the hype. People are seriously disappointed with it and prefer the way it used to be in the past, when players did make an effort to win and actually played defense. This led many to believe the past NBA is better. But could this be true? To answer, I will compare the past and present of the NBA in three major categories, and then give my opinion on which I think is better. The categories are as follows: Players (two players on each position from each era compared), Jerseys, and Overall Game (Defense, Offense, Strategy). For the old NBA, I’ll be looking at the years 1960-1998 and for the present 1999-today. 

The Players

The players are what makes the game so special. The majority of players have their own individual set of abilities that distinguish them. It’s always satisfying seeing a great player display their abilities, like sometimes a player is really good at scoring a three-pointer but not so good at guarding his man. That’s why I’ll be comparing the two best players at every position from the past and the present. 

The best point guards from the mid 60s to the end of the 90s were Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson, compared to today’s Stephen Curry and Chris Paul. Though it’s close, I think that the older players are better. It is difficult to justify the modern players being better when Chris Paul hasn’t won a single ring in 19 years of being in the League. On the other hand, Magic Johnson (who has five rings) is considered the best at his position, only competing with Stephen Curry (who has four rings) and Oscar Robertson who has one ring which is more than CP3’s zero. Since the point guard position’s role has changed so much from an opportunity creator and making many passes to more of finding the open three and heavy reliance on handles, it is more difficult to compare these players, but I would still consider the older era better.  

At the shooting guard position, the best from the past are Michael Jordan and Clyde Drexler compared to today’s best, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. Personally, I would take today’s best all day over the past. The older combine for seven rings (MJ has six, Drexler one), while the players of the present combine for eight, (Kobe has five, and Wade has three). This is also somewhat based on personal preference; I just prefer Kobe over everyone in the NBA. That’s why I think the present is far better in this position.

The best of the small forwards of the past are Larry Bird and Julius Erving. It’s tough to decide between Dr. J (Julius Erving), and Scottie Pippen, but out of respect I think Dr. J deserves it. And, for the present, LeBron James and Kevin Durant win. This is a no-brainer. The present wins by a mile and a half. LeBron James is arguably the best of all time, and Kevin Durant is a top player of all time as well. Larry Bird and Dr. J just can’t compare to the legacy these two players are building.

The best power forwards of the past are Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. The best of the present are Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki; once again, the players of the present are just better. In a way, Tim Duncan is like Kobe except they played different positions; they both have five rings and won all with one team. Dirk also went on a crazy playoffs run, even beating the Miami Heat super team in 2011. Neither Charles Barkley nor Karl Malone won a ring, but they’re both very dominant players who knew their game really well and scored loads of points. 

Finally, the best centers of the past are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell. For the present, the best are Shaquille O’Neal and Nikola Jokic. The past takes this win; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was extremely dominant and managed to score tens of thousands of points without the three-point line and also winning six rings. Bill Russel’s record is unbeatable; he has 11 rings. Shaq and Jokic are great but are nothing compared to what Kareem and Bill Russel did for the game. 

Overall, the present has better talent in most positions. But what about the apparel?

The Jerseys

In the past, jerseys were made by Sand-Knit (AKA Champion); there are some really nice jerseys like the showtime Lakers jersey:

These are extremely clean and look great. I personally prefer when the jersey has the logo of the brand that made the jersey printed onto it, but these are great regardless. I like the way the “R” stretches below the “S.” Even the modern Lakers jerseys take inspiration from these. 

Another great older jersey is this Super Sonics Classic jersey: 

This jersey is great; the basketball going around the “SONICS” in a circle looks good, and I like that the letters go kind of on an upward slope. 

I love that these jerseys were simple and showed what the team was about rather than trying to get some secret meaning behind an insanely overcomplicated designed jersey. One complaint I would have is the quality of the numbers and logos because they were kind of like stickers, and when you use the jersey a lot, the numbers would kind of start to peel off, and it would ruin the jersey. Overall, older jerseys look great. 

Now, the newer jerseys. This is when Adidas and Nike, and a little bit of Reebok, come in. Although I would argue that Adidas didn’t make the highest quality jerseys, they have some classics–like the special edition Christmas jerseys which were some of the most amazing jerseys ever released.

I love the way the lettering works; they look so smooth. They’re not simple enough to be boring but not complicated enough to be mind-boggling. 

Another example of some great Adidas jerseys were the 2014 jerseys that had the players’ first name rather than the last name. 

These are really cool, maybe not the most creative design. But, it is refreshing to see something different being done with the jerseys. They made the logo smaller, and emphasized the player’s first name rather than last name. I think it looks really cool. I kind of wish we could still buy these. 

I won’t even put a picture of Reebok jerseys; in my opinion, they are extremely lazily designed and are very low quality. 

Lastly, there are the Nike jerseys, which are the ones we have now. I’ve already talked about my favorite Nike NBA jerseys, so I’ll only mention one. Here is the Black Mamba Lakers jersey: 

The jersey holds a huge meaning, representing the Black Mamba himself, Kobe Bryant. It looks great, the black makes great contrast with yellow. Even though it’s just the basic design with yellow and black, it looks super clean, and it looks even better in-game. 

I struggle to decide which era has better jerseys; it’s really hard to come up with an answer because in the past the NBA almost never made a horrible jersey, but instead made simpler ones with solid designs but generally more boring. Today’s NBA can make incredibly bold designs that work 65% of the time and are very interesting, while the other 35% are just terrible jerseys that are quickly forgotten or are never really popular. I’d say the deciding factor is that since my collection is based primarily on apparel of this era, I’ll give the win to today’s jerseys.

Overall Game

Today’s game is way more offensive than before. The reason why is that in 2004-2005 the NBA got more serious about hand-checking. “Hand checking is when a defender illegally uses their hand or arm to touch or control an offensive player’s movement. It’s a personal foul” (homeschoolhoop). Now, the defenders can BARELY touch the defender without the refs immediately calling a personal foul on them. Thanks to this, every game goes to around 110-120 points scored by each team (basketballreference). In the mid 1990s to 2000s, teams scored 95 ppg each; that is a crazy difference and is all thanks to the hand-check enforcement. On top of that, refereeing has gotten so annoying recently, with refs calling fouls on basically everything, from hanging on the rim to literally just passing the ball to the ref–anything can get you a technical foul. In a way, refs are just too soft nowadays, soft meaning they get annoyed easily and call almost anything a foul. “As of January 14, players have been ejected 29 times so far in the 2023-24 season. Moreover, the sheer number of these rulings has led to many fans calling the NBA and its refs ‘soft.’ Some players have received techs for the smallest and most ridiculous infractions” (LWOS). I can see why the NBA would implement these changes though. More points equals more viewership and more intense games which attracts more people. However, I also argue that it is more satisfying to watch a team score because they created a brilliant play that allowed them to score rather than the other team just playing lackluster defense or the referee calling a foul on non-existent contact. So, for this category, I have to give it to the older NBA. 

To conclude, both the past and present of the NBA have amazing talents, apparels and overall game. But, it should be noted that the NBA has improved over the years, and that’s why the newer NBA performs better in most of these categories. My personal opinion is that this modern era is better than the older. But, then again, I didn’t grow up watching Michael Jordan, or collecting the Sand-Knit jerseys, so due to that, I may have to admit a bit of bias towards this newer generation.

What do you think? Do you prefer the newer or older NBA? Let me know in the comments.